‘Fukushima Fingerprint’: Highest-Yet Radiation Levels Found Off US Coast

Scientists test seawater samples off the coast of Japan near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. (Photo: IAEA Imagebank/flickr/cc)

Radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has been detected at an increased number of sites off U.S. shores, including the highest level in the area detected to date, scientists announced Thursday.

While the levels are still too low to be considered a threat to human or marine life by the government’s standards, tests of hundreds of samples of Pacific Ocean water reveal that the Fukushima Daiichi plant has continued to leak radioactive isotopes more than four years after the meltdown—and must not be dismissed, according to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) marine radiochemist Ken Buesseler.

“Despite the fact that the levels of contamination off our shores remain well below government-established safety limits for human health or to marine life, the changing values underscore the need to more closely monitor contamination levels across the Pacific,” Buesseler said Thursday. “[F]inding values that are still elevated off Fukushima confirms that there is continued release from the plant.”

Scientists from the WHOI and Buesseler’s citizen-science project Our Radioactive Ocean discovered trace amounts of cesium-134, the “fingerprint” of Fukushima, in 110 new Pacific samples off U.S. shores in 2015 alone.

The isotope is unique to Fukushima and has a relatively short two-year half life, which means “the only source of this cesium-134 in the Pacific today is from Fukushima,” Buesseler said.

Map shows the location of seawater samples taken by scientists and citizen scientists that were analyzed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for radioactive cesium as part of Our Radioactive Ocean. Cesium-137 is found throughout the Pacific Ocean and was detectable in all samples collected, while cesium-134 (yellow/orange dots), an indicator of contamination from Fukushima, has been observed offshore and in select coastal areas. (Figure by Jessica Drysdale, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

One sample collected roughly 1,600 miles west of San Francisco revealed the highest radiation level detected to date off the West Coast, the researchers said in a post on the project’s website. “[In] one cubic meter of seawater (about 264 gallons), 11 radioactive decay events per second can be attributed to cesium atoms of both isotopes. That is 50 percent higher than we’ve seen before.”

“[T]hese long-lived radioisotopes will serve as markers for years to come for scientists studying ocean currents and mixing in coastal and offshore waters,” Buesseler continued.

The 2011 accident, prompted by an earthquake and tsunami off Japan’s east coast, was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 and resulted in the near-total meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant and a mass evacuation of the prefecture. Despite ongoing warnings about long-term health and environmental impacts and widespread opposition to nuclear power in the wake of the meltdown, Japan in August restarted a reactor at the Sendai power plant, about 620 miles southwest of Tokyo.

……………………………………………………………………………………..

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

NRA to call for replacing Monju operator
Nuclear & Energy Nov. 3, 2015 – Updated 23:14 UTC-5
Japan’s nuclear regulator is set to call on science minister Hirosi Hase to replace the operator of the country’s prototype fast-breeder Monju reactor.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority made the decision at a meeting on Wednesday, based on its view that the current operator, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, is unfit for the job. It says the operator of the Monju reactor in Fukui Prefecture has failed to improve its safety.
The NRA will also ask the minister to fundamentally review the reactor’s status if a new operator cannot be found. It wants the minister to name an alternative operator within about 6 months.
The nuclear regulator ordered the Atomic Energy Agency 2 years ago not to conduct test-runs at Monju, after a large number of safety oversight problems surfaced.
New problems with its safety management were found even after the reactor went offline.
The NRA is authorized by law to offer unbinding recommendations to the heads of government ministries and agencies in order to ensure the safe use of nuclear power.
This is the first time the authority has decided to issue such a recommendation since it was established 3 years ago.

Tsuruga reactor to undergo screening for restart
Nuclear & EnergyNov. 4, 2015 – Updated 17:39 UTC-5
The operator of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in central Japan is to apply for screening of one of its reactors to put it back online.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority concluded in its assessment in March that the No.2 reactor on the Sea of Japan Coast in Fukui Prefecture stands directly above a fault, and could move in the future.
The unit may be forced to shut down permanently.
Japan adopted tougher regulations that ban construction of reactor buildings and other key structures above such faults after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
The Japan Atomic Power Company says it challenges the assessment of the nuclear regulator, and will apply for a safety screening on Thursday.
The screening is a prerequisite in resuming operations of reactors that remain offline following the nuclear disaster. The operator compiled reports on its new findings after carrying out fresh drilling surveys and other on-site studies.
It argues it found that the fault that the nuclear regulator has concluded may shift in the future has not been active for many years, and said that the fault will remain inactive in the future.

Possible violation in radioactive waste storage
Nuclear & Energy Nov. 2, 2015 – Updated 06:15 UTC-5
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority secretariat has found the operator of a uranium enrichment plant in Aomori Prefecture stored radioactive waste in a location that violated safety regulations. The plant enriches uranium for nuclear power generation.
The Secretariat of the NRA is expected to ask Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited to remedy the situation.
The secretariat says the violation was discovered in August during an inspection of the plant in northeastern Japan.
It says the operator has been storing low-level radioactive waste temporarily in a room near equipment used to produce enriched uranium. The secretariat says the location is in violation of safety regulations.
The operator later moves the waste to a location that meets safety regulations.
But the secretariat says the temporary storage place is in violation of regulations. It is expected to ask the operator to correct the situation.
Officials at Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited say the plant made its own rules for temporary storage. They say there have been no leaks of radioactive substances.
The officials say they will store the waste in a proper way in the future.

A shocking new report defies the chronically underestimated impacts of the Fukushima’s triple meltdown on the risk of cancer in exposed populations, which does not just include Japan, but arguably the entire world.

A new report from Fairewinds Energy Education (FEE), “Cancer on the Rise in Post-Fukushima Japan,” reveals that the ongoing multi-core nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that started in March 2011 has produced approximately 230 times higher than normal thyroid cancers in Fukushima Prefecture, and could result in as many as one million more cancers in Japan’s future as a result of the meltdown.

According to the new report, data provided by a group of esteemed Japanese medical professionals and TEPCO, confirm a direct link of numerous cancers in Japan to the triple meltdown. As transcribed by Enenews.com, Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairewinds stated, Nov. 4, 2015:

“It’s been almost 5 years from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns, and the news from Japan is still not good. Two reports recently released in Japan, one by Japanese medical professionals and the second from Tokyo Power Corporation – TEPCO – acknowledged that there will be numerous cancers in Japan, much greater than normal, due to the radioactive discharges from the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi… I believe, as do many of my colleagues, that there will be at least 100,000 and as many as one million more cancers in Japan’s future as a result of this meltdown… [T]he second report received from Japan proves that the incidence of thyroid cancer is approximately 230 times higher than normal in Fukushima Prefecture… So what’s the bottom line? The cancers already occurring in Japan are just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sorry to say that the worst is yet to come.”

The spokesperson said that there was no threat of radioactive contamination following the explosion, while also adding that no one was injured in the blast. An explosion hit the Doel nuclear power station in northern Belgium on Sunday, a spokesperson of Electrabel energy corporation that operates Doel said.

An explosion occurred overnight at a nuclear power plant in Doel, northern Belgium, local media reported, adding that the blast caused a fire. The exact damage from the incident remains unknown. The blast happened around 11pm local time on Saturday. The fire started in Reactor 1 of the plant, but was soon extinguished by personnel. The explosion didn’t cause any threat to nature, Els De Clercq, spokeswoman from Belgian energy corporation Electrabel that runs the plant, told Het Laatste Nieuws. There was no fuel present at the time of the incident as the reactor had been shut due to its expired operational license. Doel Nuclear Power Station, one of the two nuclear power plants in the country, is located near the town of Doel in east Flanders. The plant employs about 800 people. According to the Nature journal and Columbia University in New York, the plant is in the most densely populated area of all nuclear power stations in the EU. About 9 million people live within a radius of 75km of the station.

An explosion hit the Doel nuclear power station in northern Belgium on Sunday, a spokesperson of Electrabel energy corporation that operates Doel said. The blast happened after fire started in Reactor 1 of the plant, which was soon extinguished by personnel. The exact damage from the incident remains unknown. The explosion didn’t cause any threat to nature, Els De Clercq, spokeswoman from Belgian energy corporation Electrabel that runs the plant, told Het Laatste Nieuws, Russia Today reported. There was no fuel present at the time of the incident as the reactor had been shut due to its expired operational license. Doel Nuclear Power Station, one of the two nuclear power plants in the country, is located near the town of Doel in east Flanders. The plant employs about 800 people. According to the Nature journal and Columbia University in New York, the plant is in the most densely populated area of all nuclear power stations in the EU. About 9 million people live within a radius of 75km of the station.

Will the ‘stricter regulations’ serve as protection?

by Julie FidlerPosted on October 21, 2015

Just days after 1,800 people from around Kyushu gathered to protest the planned restart of another reactor at the Sendai nuclear plant, the second reactor has been brought online. The Sendai Nuclear Power Plant is the only one working in Japan since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. [1]

There are currently 20 reactors at 13 Japanese nuclear power plants undergoing audits to confirm that their safety standards are in compliance with new regulations adopted since the Fukushima meltdown. The new regulations are significantly stricter than those that existed prior to the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that crashed into Fukushima and make provisions for the highest level of earthquake and tsunami risk. Nuclear power plants in Japan must now have several backup power sources available, as well as other comprehensive emergency measures. [2]

Opinion polls have consistently shown that residents were against bringing the second Sendai reactor online. On October 12, nearly 2,000 people protested the restart, waving placards reading “Nuclear plant, no more” and shouting slogans. The plant’s No. 1 reactor was brought back on line in August. [3]

Protesters called the decision to bring No. 2 online a “suicidal” decision, as a steam generator in the reactor building has not been replaced with a more durable one. Kyushu Electric Power Co. had said it would replace the generator in 2009.

Fukushima No. 1 boss admits plant doesn’t have complete control over water problems

OKUMA, FUKUSHIMA PREF. – The manager of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has admitted to embarrassment that repeated efforts have failed to bring under control the problem of radioactive water, eight months after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the world the matter had been resolved.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant’s operator, has been fighting a daily battle against contaminated water since Fukushima No. 1 was wrecked by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Abe’s government pledged half a billion dollars last year to tackle the issue, but progress has been limited.

“It’s embarrassing to admit, but there are certain parts of the site where we don’t have full control,” Akira Ono told reporters touring the plant last week.

He was referring to the latest blunder at the plant: channeling contaminated water into the wrong building.

Ono also acknowledged that many difficulties may have been rooted in Tepco’s focus on speed since the 2011 disaster.

“It may sound odd, but this is the bill we have to pay for what we have done in the past three years,” he said.

“But we were pressed to build tanks in a rush and may have not paid enough attention to quality. We need to improve quality from here.”

The Fukushima No. 1 plant, some 220 km northeast of Tokyo, suffered three reactor core meltdowns in the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

The issue of contaminated water is at the core of the clean-up. Japan’s nuclear regulator and the International Atomic Energy Agency say a new controlled release into the sea of contaminated water may be needed to ease stretched capacity as the plant runs out of storage space.

But this is predicated on the state-of-the-art ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System) project, which removes the most dangerous nuclides, becoming fully operational. The system has functioned only during periodic tests.

As Ono spoke, workers in white protective suits and masks were building new giant tanks to contain the contaminated water — on land that was once covered in trees and grass.

A cluster of cherry trees is in bloom amid the bustle of trucks and tractors at work as the 1,000 tanks already in place approach capacity. Insulation-clad pipes lie on a hill pending installation for funneling water to the sea.

“We need to improve the quality of the tanks and other facilities so that they can survive for the next 30 to 40 years of our decommission period,” Ono said, a stark acknowledgement that the problem is long-term.

Last September, Abe told Olympic dignitaries in Buenos Aires in an address that helped Tokyo win the 2020 Games: “Let me assure you the situation is under control.”

Tepco had pledged to have treated all contaminated water by March 2015, but said this week that was a “tough goal.”

ALPS unit hit by toxic water overflow

Apr 17, 2014

KYODO – Around 1.1 tons of highly radioactive water overflowed from a waste container at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex while the experimental ALPS radiation-filtering system was being cleaned, Tokyo Electric Power Co. has reported.

The overflow at the trouble-plagued water treatment system was noticed at about 12:20 p.m. Wednesday, and no one was contaminated, Tepco said. The water was retained by a barrier and inside the building where the Advanced Liquid Processing System is housed, it said.

The water was giving off around 3.8 million becquerels of beta-particle-emitting substances per liter, Tepco said.

Report: Radioactive Leak at Nuclear Waste Site in the US Was Avoidable

– Report says leak at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico could have been avoided

Earlier this year, on February 16, the Department of Energy in the United States announced that excessive levels of radiation had been documented at a nuclear waste site in New Mexico. The site in question is known as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, and it presently accommodates for transuranic waste.

Recent news on the topic says that, according to a report shared with the public by the Department of Energy this past Thursday, this incident at said nuclear waste site in New Mexico could have been avoided.

As previously reported, traces of radiation were picked up by underground sensors at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on Friday, February 14. This increase in radiation levels most likely occurred as a result of a leak inside one of the facility’s waste-storage vaults.

Despite the fact that these waste-storage vaults sit at a depth of about 2,000 feet (nearly 610 meters), some radioactive contamination somehow worked its way above ground. There is evidence to indicate that this happened due to the fact that the emergency filtration system failed to contain it.
NPR informs that, in its report, the Department of Energy argues that the waste storage vault leaked partly due to improper maintenance, poor management, and unsuitable training and oversight.

Management, Safety Cited for Radiation Release

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. April 24, 2014 (AP)

By JERI CLAUSING Associated Press

A radiation release from the federal government’s underground nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico was the result of a slow erosion of the safety culture at the 15-year-old site, which was evident in the bungled response to the emergency, federal investigators said in a report released Thursday.

The report from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Accident Investigation Board cited poor management, ineffective maintenance and a lack of proper training and oversight at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. The report also found that much of the operation failed to meet standards for a nuclear facility.

The series of shortcomings are similar to those found in a probe of the truck fire in the half-mile-deep mine just nine days before the Feb. 14 radiation release that shuttered the plant indefinitely.

Given the latest findings, watchdog Don Hancock said the leak that contaminated 21 workers with low doses of radiation in mid-February was a “best-case scenario.”

“Everything conspired for the least bad event to occur, based on what we know — and there is a still a lot we don’t know,” he said.

Last month, the head of the Defense Nuclear Safety Board, which has staff monitoring the Waste Isolation Pilot Project, called the accidents “near misses.”

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur said that for six days after the fire, no underground air monitors were operational, meaning that if that system had failed when the leak occurred Feb. 14, “or if the release event had occurred three days earlier, the release of radioactive material from the aboveground mine exhaust would have been orders of magnitude larger.”

DOE Accident Investigation Board Chairman Ted Wyka previewed the findings of the latest report at a community meeting Wednesday night, identifying the root cause as a “degradation of key safety management and safety culture.”

Crews locate area of radiation leak at New Mexico nuclear waste site

While the cause of a radiation leak at the United States’ first nuclear waste repository remains unknown, officials have reportedly pinpointed the facility’s contaminated area.

According to the Associated Press, the Department of Energy’s Tammy Reynolds told residents in Carlsbad, New Mexico, that no definitive conclusions can be made regarding the latest discovery, but that further investigation into the area should produce some information next week.

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has been shut down since February 14, when increased radiation levels were detected inside and outside the plant.

On Wednesday, crews investigating the leak made their way into the WIPP and inspected the facility’s various panels, or the large underground salt beds where nuclear waste is stored. These panels are located about a half-mile below the Earth’s surface, and after five hours of inspection they found that Panel 7 was the source of the leaked contamination.

Search crew finds location but not source of leak at New Mexico nuclear waste storage site

By D. Lencho
21 April 2014

On April 16, more than two months after an underground air monitor detected airborne radiation underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) nuclear waste burial site in Carlsbad, New Mexico (see “Thirteen workers exposed to radiation in New Mexico nuclear waste site” ), a search team clad in heavy protective gear discovered the location of the contamination.

Since moving in the heavy-duty suits is slow and laborious, and the team’s respiratory equipment was running low, the team turned back before pinpointing the exact source of the leak, determining only that it is in a storage unit known as panel seven. This means that more trips to the 2,150-feet-deep panel will be required to find the source and to deal with it.

On the night of February 14, the monitor set off an alert, causing evacuation of the area and a halt to deliveries. Since then, the number of WIPP workers found to be contaminated with radiation has risen from 13 to 21. In addition, increased radiation has been detected in surrounding areas above ground.

The leak followed on the heels of an incident on February 5 in which a salt-hauling truck caught fire underground. 86 workers had to be evacuated. Six were hospitalized for smoke inhalation and seven others were treated on site.

A March 14 DOE (Department of Energy) Office of Environment Management report on the fire “identifies shortcomings in the preventive maintenance program, emergency management, and emergency response training and drills by the Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC managing and operating DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., and it also faults the oversight provided by DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office,” according to an ohsonline.com article.

The article adds that the report “finds the NWP/Carlsbad Field Office emergency management program is not fully compliant with DOE’s requirements for a comprehensive emergency management system. While the report identified the direct cause of the incident…the investigative board identified 21 error precursors on the date of the fire. The truck operator’s training and qualification were inadequate to ensure proper response to a vehicle fire, and he did not initially notify the Central Monitoring Room that there was a fire or describe the fire’s location.”

Joe Franco, DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office manager, claimed, “We take these findings seriously and, in fact, we are already implementing many of the corrective actions in the report.”

However, criticism of WIPP from outside the DOE—from scientific, community and environmental organizations—has been constant since planning for the project began decades ago.

WIPP’s history traces its roots to the emergence of the US as a nuclear power during and after World War II. As the development of nuclear weapons picked up its pace, the problem of the accumulation of so-called transuranic waste, or TRU, developed along with it. TRU contains the elements americium and plutonium—which has a half-life in the tens of thousands of years—and contact with or ingestion of it, although it is categorized as “low-level,” is carcinogenic in minute amounts.

The Department of Energy began a search for a location to dispose of TRU, and after other proposed sites were rejected, decided in the early 1970s to begin testing on an area known as the Delaware Basin in southeastern New Mexico, about 26 miles east of the town of Carlsbad. A salt basin formed about 250 million years ago, and below some 300 meters (1,000 feet) of soil and rock, it was promoted by government officials and some scientists as an ideal waste disposal spot.

pt 1-2

The tragedy of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster took place almost three years ago. Since then, radiation has forced thousands out of their homes and led to the deaths of many. It took great effort to prevent the ultimate meltdown of the plant — but are the after effects completely gone? Tokyo says yes; it also claims the government is doing everything it can for those who suffered in the disaster. However, disturbing facts sometimes rise to the surface. To shed a bit of light on the mystery of the Fukushima aftermath, Sophie Shevardnadze talks to the former mayor of one of the disaster-struck cities. Katsutaka Idogawa is on SophieCo today.

The tragedy of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster took place almost three years ago. Since then, radiation has forced thousands out of their homes and led to the deaths of many. It took great effort to prevent the ultimate meltdown of the plant — but are the after effects completely gone? Tokyo says yes; it also claims the government is doing everything it can for those who suffered in the disaster. However, disturbing facts sometimes rise to the surface. To shed a bit of light on the mystery of the Fukushima aftermath, Sophie Shevardnadze talks to the former mayor of one of the disaster-struck cities. Katsutaka Idogawa is on SophieCo today.

RSOE EDIS

Damage to an electrical transformer caused one reactor to shut down automatically at a northern Illinois nuclear power plant over the weekend. Unit 2 at the Dresden Nuclear Station shut down Saturday morning, and it remained offline on Sunday as crews worked to fix the damage. Dresden spokesman Robert Osgood says the problem is on the non-nuclear side of the plant. He says the plant responded as expected, and there was no safety threat. He says a second reactor is operating normally, and electrical customers will not be affected. The plant is in Morris, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago,

1.0 Site Identification

Type of Site:

Power Reactor Facility

Location:

Dresden, IL

License No.:

DPR-2

Docket No.:

50-0010

License Status:

SAFSTOR

Project Manager:

John Hickman

2.0 Site Status Summary

The plant shut down in October 1978 and is currently in SAFSTOR. The Decommissioning Plan was approved in September 1993. No significant dismantlement activities are underway. Isolation of Unit 1 and Units 2 and 3, is complete. All spent fuel from DNPS Unit 1 that was previously stored in the Unit 1 SFP, the Unit 1 fuel transfer pool, and the Unit 2 SFP has now been transferred to the on-site Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). Currently, 108 spent fuel assemblies and one fuel rod basket from Unit 1 are stored in the DNPS Unit 3 SFP. During the SAFSTOR period (through 2027), the Unit 1 facility will be subjected to periodic inspection and monitoring. These activities will include condition monitoring of the ISFSI, ongoing environmental surveys, and maintenance of equipment required to support the SAFSTOR condition of the facility. Security will be maintained as part of the site protected area boundary for DNPS Units 1, 2, and 3 during this period. The licensee plans that decontamination and dismantlement of DNPS Unit 1, including removal of any remaining Unit 1 spent fuel that is stored in the Unit 3 SFP, will take place from 2029 through 2031. Major components, including the nuclear steam supply system and the turbine-generator machinery, will be decontaminated as needed, and removed at this time. Other systems and components will also be removed, packaged and disposed of; the associated buildings will be prepared for demolition. A four-year site restoration delay will follow the major decontamination and dismantlement of DNPS Unit 1 to allow for the decontamination and dismantlement of Units 2 and 3, with completion of these activities tentatively planned for 2035. Site restoration is planned for in 2035 and 2036, with the demolition of the remaining structures and removal of contaminated soil. The licensee plans to conduct a final site survey in late 2036. The licensee will monitor the DNPS ISFSI complex with site security and periodic inspections until final transfer of the spent fuel to the Department of Energy for disposal.

Dresden Unit 1 produced power commercially from 1960 to October 31,1978. The unit had a history of minor steam leaks and erosion in steam piping in the early and mid-1960s. There were also fuel failures during the period of September through December of 1964 and other times which, although not leading to off-gas releases above limits, did cause redistribution of radionuclides from the fuel to other parts of the primary system. Several systems in the plant used admiralty brass (Cu-Ni) heat exchange surfaces, including the Main Condenser. Most of these were taken out of service and replaced with stainless steel tubing. In the sixth partial refueling, the condenser was re-tubed from admiralty brass to 304L stainless steel. The use of Cu-Ni surfaces did lead to translocation and deposition of corrosion products throughout the operating systems. The use of carbon steel in the Secondary Feedwater System may have also contributed to the elevated corrosion radionuclide levels. These foregoing events led to the need to perform a chemical decontamination of the Primary System. The Unit was taken off-line on October 31, 1978, to backfit it with equipment to meet new federal regulations and to perform a chemical decontamination of major piping systems. While it was out of service for retrofitting, additional regulations were issued as a result of the March 1979 incident at Three Mile Island. The estimated cost to bring Dresden Unit 1 into compliance with these regulations was more than $300 million. Commonwealth Edison concluded that the age of the unit and its relatively small size did not warrant the added investment. In 1984, chemical decontamination of the primary system was performed and 753 curies of Cobalt-60 and 12.4 curies of Cesium- 137 were removed. This decontamination was completed and activities began shortly thereafter to prepare the facility for decommissioning. In July of 1986, the NRC revised the Dresden Unit 1 license to possess-but-not-operate status. The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved Revision 3 to the Dresden Unit 1 Decommissioning Program Plan on September 3, 1993. In 1998, the Decommissioning Program Plan was revised to the current Defueled Safety Analysis Report (DSAR) format.

3.0 Major Technical or Regulatory Issues

None.

4.0 Estimated Date For Closure

The center of this Toxic Plume is located approximately 60 miles southwest of Chicago, Illinois. This plume is produced by 2 reactors located at the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant site. The reactors that produce this plume have 1,734 Mega Watts of radiation generating power. There is a total of 1,050 tons of Highly Toxic Radioactive spent fuel stored at this Nuclear Power Plant. The Dresden Nuclear 1 reactor has been forced into permanent shut down, leaving the plant in a virtually unattended state. During one winter, this unit experienced containment flooding to the service water system, due to freeze damage. It was determined that a similar threat to Spent Fuel Pool integrity. Tritium leaks at the other units in this plant are treated with the same lack of concern that Nuclear Power corporations give all leaking radiation.

TEPCO accidentally floods wrong building with 200 tons of radioactive water at Fukushima plant

Approximately 200 tons of highly radioactive water were redirected to the wrong building at the disaster stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant on April 14 when pumps that were not supposed to be used were incorrectly turned on, this according to plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). The plant’s officials assured that there were no other channels the contaminated water could leak out of from the building, but the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) ordered the utility to monitor for leakage just the same.

TEPCO said that the highly contaminated water – used for cooling the molten down reactors – has been wrongly directed to a group of buildings that house the central waste processing facilities. The embattled operator said that the basements of these buildings were supposed to function as emergency storage for contaminated water anyway, but the water was not supposed to be directed to the buildings at this point. Fukushima workers noticed something was wrong on April 10, as the water levels in buildings that should have been pumping out water were noticed to be going up instead of down.

Friends and Sponsors

The Animal Rescue Site

The Hunger Site – Your click helps to feed the hungry

Wheatgrass Kits.com

FAIR USE NOTICE

The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of scientific, environmental, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal or technical advice.

Any materials (ie. graphics, articles , commentary) that are original to this blog are copyrighted and signed by it's creator. Said original material may be shared with attribution. Please respect the work that goes into these items and give the creator his/her credit. Just as we share articles , graphics and photos always giving credit to their creators when available. Credit and a link back to the original source is required.

If you have an issue with anything posted here or would prefer we not use it . Please contact me. Any items that are requested to be removed by the copyright owner will be removed immediately. No threats needed or lawsuit required. If there is a problem and you do not wish your work to be showcased then we will happily find an alternative from the many sources readily available from creators who would find it amenable to having their work presented to the subscribers of this feed.